Controversy arises whenever and wherever the sealing industry is discussed. But the modern-day anti-sealing movement is very new in comparison with the industry it opposes. This comprehensive history begins with the opening of American trade with China, and follows the industry wherever North Americans have sought seals for their fat or their skins, from New England to Australia, from Cape Horn to the California coast. All the many species of seals hunted received due consideration, as do walruses and sea otters, also part of the larger sealing industry. Above all, this book studies the fur seals of the Bering Sea and the harp seals of the Newfoundland hunt, detailing the consequences of an industry's killing of more than 50,000,000 seals in 150 years. Busch weighs this toll against the economic benefits that sealing brought to a great many people in cities along both North American coasts.

Based on extensive research into primary and published sources, Busch's history provides conservationists, naturalists, historians, and general readers with new information and new perspectives on a subject of continuing world interest.